Matt Martin deserves a big hurrah from Islanders fans in what will likely be his final home game
Matt Martin of the Islanders skates against the Rangers at UBS Arena on Thursday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Tuesday night’s home finale for the playoff-eliminated Islanders is anything but a meaningless game.
It is almost certainly Matt Martin’s last game at UBS Arena wearing an Islanders’ sweater, even if he’s not ready to announce that. And the heart-and-soul fourth-liner, who for so long set the team’s hard-working on-ice identity with former linemates Casey Cizikas and Cal Clutterbuck, deserves all the applause and respect the UBS Arena crowd can muster when the Islanders face the Capitals.
The selfless Martin never hesitated to protect his teammates
“He’s certainly earned everyone’s respect,” former teammate and longtime friend Josh Bailey said on Monday during a phone conversation with Newsday. “I think, regardless of the situation, he deserves a big ovation tomorrow night for what he’s meant to the organization, to Long Island, to countless number of kids he’s impacted. His impact has gone far beyond hockey. So I think it will be a good thing to make sure that he feels everyone’s appreciation.”
Bailey will be in the stands on Tuesday to make sure he’s part of the cheers for Martin. They played junior hockey against each other in the Ontario Hockey League, then really got to know each other when they were both drafted by the Islanders in 2008, Bailey eighth overall and Martin in the fifth round.
Martin, who turns 36 next month, has played 14 of his 16 NHL seasons and 853 of his 985 regular-season games with the Islanders, accumulating 73 of his 81 career goals, 84 of his 97 assists and 995 of his 1,168 penalty minutes. Per HockeyFights.com, 87 of his 106 regular-season bouts have been with the Islanders.
His 3,936 career hits rank second behind Clutterbuck (4,029) since the NHL first started tracking them in 2005.
Not ready to retire after compiling four goals and four assists with 43 penalty minutes last season and not attracting a contract in the offseason as an unrestricted free agent, Martin came to training camp on a professional tryout offer and eventually signed a one-year, $775,000 deal on Oct. 26.
There was no pretense that Martin, who has two assists in 30 games, was returning in his former full-time role and, had Anthony Duclair not left the team on a leave of absence on April 2, Martin might not have made it back into the lineup. He was a healthy scratch for 30 straight games from Jan. 18-April 1.
It seems inconceivable he will get another contract from the Islanders.
Still, Martin was not ready to look at these final games as a sentimental journey.
“Handle what’s in front of you,” Martin told Newsday. “It’s really how I approach most things. Just deal with what’s in front of you and worry about the stuff that comes later, later.”
That said, Tuesday night should be meaningful to the fans and Martin, always a Long Islander since breaking into the NHL, maintaining a presence here even after signing with the Maple Leafs as a free agent in 2016.
Bailey, who never got the UBS Arena curtain call he deserved, knows how special it was for him and his family when he knew he was playing his last game. That came in an unfamiliar Senators’ jersey in a 6-4 preseason loss in Ottawa to the Canadiens on Oct. 7, 2023. Bailey, traded to Chicago and then bought out, attended Senators’ training camp on a PTO.
“I can’t really speak for Marty and what he’ll be feeling,” Bailey said. “I know what I felt. My mom and dad came to the game. It’s an emotional feeling. What really got me was thinking of myself as a boy playing the game and getting to live out your dreams. You think of all the people who helped you along the way.”
Yes, yes, yes, Tuesday should be incredibly meaningful to Martin, who deserves one last, great night as an Islander.
Cotter suspended. The NHL on Monday suspended the Devils’ Paul Cotter for two games for his illegal hit to the head of defenseman Adam Pelech in the Islanders’ 1-0 win on Sunday afternoon.
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
